


Blue as the Earthen Sky

by ProwlingThunder



Series: for thou art with me [1]
Category: Star Trek: Alternate Original Series (Movies)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, Soul Mates - Color Blindness, colorblind
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-03-28
Updated: 2019-03-28
Packaged: 2019-12-25 16:00:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 986
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18264659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ProwlingThunder/pseuds/ProwlingThunder
Summary: It's all perfect. And then his vision explodes in a kaleidoscope of blues.





	Blue as the Earthen Sky

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Cerridwen](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Cerridwen/gifts).



> Soulmate Prompt from khantoelessar over on [Tumblr](http://khantoelessar.tumblr.com/post/183632834155/prowlingthunder-i-kind-of-really-want-to-write), who is a wonderful human being. Of course, they're also here too....

He knows something is wrong the moment he opens his eyes. It's not because he doesn't see the cryopod's lid, or see the Bay beyond it, not because he opens his eyes to painful, glaring light and he can't but barely move a muscle, wrists and ankles and knee and elbow all bound to prevent him from it.

His vision has never been a problem. He has always been perfectly capable of seeing the whole spectrum, even into the edges of ultraviolet and he has never found it odd. Certainly others have had better vision; Khan had never needed to be augmented that extensively, when excessive vision was not his purpose.

Of course, being the only Augment awake and Admiral Marcus holding the others hostage would be a problem, but when he first wakes that is not something Khan knows is wrong.

Khan only knows, when he wakes up, that he can no longer see any shade of the color blue.

 

At first, Khan suspects it might be an old injury come to light, or a side-effect from the cryo that they hadn't suspected. For all their advancements, even the Augments have a potential of failure. There is no need to tell Admiral Marcus such things, and no need to enlighten him into a shortcoming of his own.

Later, after earning Marcus' trust that he was well-leashed and compliant, when he was permitted to work with a few select individuals on a day to day basis-- Khan made himself virtually indispensable, ensuring that he must be present to see his designs birthed smoothly-- he learned what it might be, instead.

Colorblindness. A very select sort, borne not from injury, but from fate.

They'd known about it, of course, the Augments. But they had been built for war and built without such silly nuances like Soulmates, built both perfect and flawed. People, normal humans-- they had soulmates. In the latter part of his rule, the whispered rumors elected by the rebellion had played trigger on the lack. Khan had needed no one to complete him, and neither had his brothers and sisters.

If any color had been blind to any of them before their slumber, Khan did not know. And unless he was very, very careful, he would never know.

But back then, the missing fragment of their lives had been their undoing. Only someone with a soulmate, it seemed, was human. Was a person. Was worth being respected as a person.

 

He wondered what it meant that he seemed to have one now.

Not that there was anything he could do about it, save continue to try to smuggle his people out from underneath Marcus' clutches. Soulmate or not, they came first.

 

It lingers in the back of his mind, though.

Perhaps something about it gives him away. Perhaps he miscalculates compensation for it. The night he seals away the last member of his family and returns to his quiet, utilitarian,  _ heavily monitored _ apartment, he gets a call from his jailer himself.

 

_ "Did you think you could steal them away from me, Khan?" _

 

Khan had crafted dozens of plans to squirrel his people away, very carefully sorting through them with plan after plan until finally he had landed on hiding them in some of the torpedoes, marked with a single strip of ultraviolet. 

Khan hadn't planned for failure, hadn't thought for one moment Marcus would see through the facade he had shown him. He hadn't planned on escaping by himself, his brothers and sisters gone. But suddenly he is, and his escape is sudden and sure even though his family will not be on the other side.

Instead, he crafts his revenge.

 

He hadn't, originally, planned revenge on Marcus. What revenge could he craft when he was simply being used for his purpose, so long as all his people came out alive?

Now they were gone, and he was alone. The last of the Augments. A king without a people, a warrior without anything to protect. Now, all that was left was revenge.

Inside him a sleeping beast wakes and settles to wait, for the perfect time to strike would be blood on his tongue, and he'd do so when Marcus knew fear.

Marcus knew not what fear was.

That was fine. Khan was going to  _ teach _ him.

 

Everything goes perfectly fine until Daystrom. Perfectly fine. Admirals, captains, and first officers, all neatly gathered into one room with beautiful glass windows overlooking a glorious skyline.

And then something catches in his engine turbine and it blows, sending his jumper into a death spiral.

It goes perfect until he looks out the jumper glass at the officer beyond, staring back at him. Starfleet First Officer uniform. Dusty, dirty blond-brown hair. Dirty and scraped from the chaos inside, the raw destruction Khan was letting them taste.

It's all perfect. And then his vision explodes in a kaleidoscope of blues.

 

Thank untold Asuras he had already hit the phase shift, or he wouldn't have had the chance with nerveless fingers. He can't look away, horror and wonder married together in his breast.

 

When he solidifies again, Khan does what any sane man with a well thought-out plan does.

He runs.

  
  
  


Kirk is already deep into space chasing after Pike's murderer when he looks over and realizes:

"Bones, what the hell are you wearing?"

"My uniform," he replies, already infinitely tired. Kirk's ridiculous allergy to hypos is upsetting enough without his extremely high blood pressure, and he wont let him do much about it.

"Huh. I thought the medical crew wore blue."

"It is blue."

"...."

 

He tried to keep his anger hot and burning, faced with John Harrison's surrender. But it was hard, faced with blue, blue eyes. Even when Harrison tried to bait him. Especially when Harrison tried to bait him.

Something didn't feel right, like it hadn't about the Kelvin Memorial Archive.

And his eyes were inexplicably blue.


End file.
